We analyze recent heat capacity measurements in herbertsmithite $\rm ZnCu_3(OH)_6Cl_2$ single crystal samples subjected to strong magnetic fields. We show that the temperature dependence of specific heat $C_{ mag}$ formed by quantum spin liquid at different magnetic fields $B$ resembles the electronic heat capacity $C_{ el}$ of the HF metal $\rm YbRh_2Si_2$. We demonstrate that the spinon effective mass $M^*_{ mag}\propto C_{ mag}/T$ exhibits a scaling behavior like that of $C_{ el}/T$. We also show that the recent measurements of $C_{ mag}$ are compatible with those obtained on powder samples. These observations allow us to conclude that $\rm ZnCu_3(OH)_6Cl_2$ holds a stable strongly correlated quantum spin liquid, and a possible gap in the spectra of spinon excitations is absent even under the application of very high magnetic fields of 18 T.
Categories: cond-mat.str-el